The overarching theme of his research is in silico design of soft materials, including biomaterials, to inform fabrication of functional architectures, as well as formulation of consumer products. The study of soft matter is central to this research theme.

Qualifications

PhD in Chemical Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 2006

MSc in Chemistry, University of Calcutta, 2001

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, University of Calcutta, 1999

Biography

Dwaipayan Chakrabarti obtained a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2006 in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. He then moved to the University of Cambridge with a Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship (2006-08) hosted by Professor David J. Wales in the Department of Chemistry. He there, subsequently, held an Ernest Oppenheimer Early Career Research Fellowship (2008-11), awarded by the University of Cambridge in the broadly interpreted field of Colloid Science. He also held a Research Fellowship (2009-11) at Clare Hall, a graduate college in Cambridge, where he is now a Life Member.

Following a brief stint in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi as an Assistant Professor (2011-12), he returned to Cambridge. He was appointed to a Lectureship at the University of Birmingham as a Birmingham Fellow in 2013.

Teaching

Soft Matter Year 4

Statistical Mechanics Year 4

Exploring the Potential Energy Surface Year 3

Research

The Chakrabarti group’s current research is focused on designing programmed self-assembly of a range of building blocks, from molecular to microscale, into functional materials. Designing novel photonic, porous, responsive, and viscoelastic materials is of particular interest.

To this end, the Chakrabarti group’s research develops, adapts, and applies computational methods, largely underpinned by the theory of statistical mechanics and energy landscape framework, to study systems of interest in close connection with contemporary experimental research.